Đề thi tổng ôn tốt nghiệp THPT Tiếng Anh (Đề số 10)

MYTH BUSTING

Never wake a sleepwalker

Waking a sleepwalker was once widely believed to be dangerous because it was thought something (1) ______ would happen to them. While nobody likes (2) ______ up, the worst thing they will experience is confusion because they are not in bed!

Drink eight glasses of water a day

This myth is thought to have been started by the (3) ______ industry. In fact, some of us need as little as a litre of liquid a day, (4) ______ have to be consumed as water. Food, soft drinks, milk, tea and coffee all count.

Being a bit overweight is unhealthy

It is often reported that serious health problems can be caused by obesity. However, people (5) ______ an extra couple of kilos (6) ______ weight might actually live longer.

(Adapted from Friends Global)

Tips to Improve Your Study Skills

1. Map Out a Study Plan: Create a schedule that includes what you need to study and when. This keeps you on track as well as prevents burnout and (7) ______.

2. Get Active with Your Learning: Passive reading won’t do. Use active techniques like note-taking, summarizing, and self-quizzing to (8) ______ what you learned.

3. Team Up with a Study Buddy: Studying with others can boost motivation because they can (9) ______ you ______ when you want to give up. You can support (10) ______ when one of you doesn’t understand something.

4. Take Breaks: Long, uninterrupted study sessions can backfire. (11) ______, take a few minutes every half-hour to refresh your mind and stay sharp.

5. Prioritize Quality Sleep: Your brain needs rest to effectively retain information. Make sure you’re well-rested to help your brain (12) ______ the materials you’ve studied.

(Adapted from i-Learn Smart World)

From Cave Walls to Social Media Walls

The word ‘media’ refers to the different ways in which people transmit information. By this definition, we can say with confidence that (18) ______ when we first began painting simplistic symbols on the walls of caves. Since then, (19) ______.

According to experts, it was sometime around 3,400 BC when human beings first began utilising written language as a means of communication. For generations, apart from verbal communication, people had to write everything manually until the mid-1440s. It was Johannes Gutenberg (20) ______. This marked the beginning of what we now call ‘mass media’. Gutenberg’s innovative invention enabled the large-scale production of print media like books, newspapers and magazines, making it possible to share information with a wider audience than ever before.

Several hundred years after the invention of the printing press, during the 19th century, we created cameras and later, the radio. The invention of the radio began the age of broadcast media, (21) ______. This allowed many people to watch fascinating movies, programmes and documentaries, all of which remain popular today.

In the 2000s, we saw the rise of digital media. Now, we visit web pages, listen to podcasts, (22) ______. We even use QR codes to share information instantly. We have come a long way, and so have the ways we communicate!

(Adapted from Bright)

Out-of-the-Ordinary Jobs

Around the world, there are some unexpected jobs that might just leave you scratching your head in surprise.

Train Pushers

In Japan, the railway system is so extensive and busy that it’s almost a culture in itself. With trains constantly packed during rush hours, a special breed of station attendants, known as ‘pushers’ or ‘oshiya’ do the strangest job in the world – they push passengers into carriages. Pushers have to cram people in as tightly as possible so that a large number of commuters can arrive at their desired locations on time. While this may sound uncomfortable, they must endure the squeeze daily as part of urban life.

Cleaners of the World’s Tallest Building

Have you ever wondered how the towering Burj Khalifa in Dubai keeps its windows sparkling? It takes a team of 36 window cleaners a total of three months to clean the tower’s reflective windows, which reduce the need for air conditioning but are prone to dirt accumulation. Working from the height of over 800 metres, the cleaners battle fierce winds and unsteady weather to polish the skyscraper’s hundreds of windows. It’s no job for the chicken-hearted – they must be the bravest cleaners in the world!

Golf Balls Divers

Every year in the UK, millions of golf balls go astray, sinking in the water around golf courses. This gave rise to the demand for golf ball divers whose job is to dive deep into the lakes and ponds to retrieve them. Most of them are professional scuba divers, but they spend long hours crawling around in mud and carrying heavy buckets. On average, they find 5,000 balls per lake. Once cleaned, the balls are resold or recycled. Sounds dangerous, doesn’t it?

Legal Bank Robbers

Imagine robbing a bank without the potential for punishment and the unpleasantness of concrete walls. A licensed bank robber’s role is to outsmart security systems and expose vulnerabilities. In the past, the job involved physically breaking into banks; today it has expanded to include identity theft, computer hacking, tricking operators into handing over customer information, and even posing as police officers to install surveillance equipment in vaults. It sounds like a profession that former secret agents would be good at.

(Adapted from Global Success & Bored Panda)

Culture is an integral part of every society. [I] It is a learned pattern of behaviour and ways in which a person lives his or her life. [II] Culture is essential for the existence of a society, because it binds people together. [III] In the explicit sense of the term, culture constitutes the music, food, arts and literature of a society. [IV]

According to English Anthropologist Edward B Taylor, culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture is something that a person learns from his family and surroundings, and is not ingrained in him from birth. Even if a person is brought up in a culture different from that in which he was born, he imbibes the culture of the society where he grows up. Some people feel the need to follow the beliefs and traditions of their own culture, even though they might be not subscribing to certain ideologies within.

Culture is the means through which people interact with others in the society. It acts in a subconscious way and whatever we see and perceive, seems to be normal and natural. Sometimes, other societies and people seem to be a little odd because they have a different culture from ours. We must remember that every society has a distinct culture that forms the backbone of the society. Culture does not remain stagnant, on the other hand it is evolving constantly and is in fact somewhat influenced by the other cultures and societies.

Every society has a different culture, where people share a specific language, traditions, behaviours, perceptions and beliefs. Culture gives them an identity which makes them unique and different from people of other cultures. When people of different cultures migrate and settle in another society, the culture of that society becomes the dominant culture and those of the immigrants form the subculture of the community. Usually, people who settle in other nations embrace the new culture, while at the same time strive to preserve their own.

Although every society has a specific culture, there are certain elements of culture that are universal. They are known as cultural universals, in which there are behavioural traits and patterns that are shared by all cultures around the world. These include classifying relations based on blood relations and marriage, telling right from wrong, having some forms of art, use of jewelry, classifying people according to gender and age, etc.

Culture is necessary to establish an order and discipline in the society. It creates a feeling of belonging and togetherness among people in the society.

(Adapted from THiNK)